Delaware “Dorks” to fly in Philly

[1]Above: The New Castle-based Stork Dorks are the only Delaware team participating in this weekend’s Red Bull Flugtag in Philadelphia.

It’s a Monday night and industrial electrician Chris Barton is at his workplace near New Castle where they design and manufacture custom-built electrical panels.

The day is done. His co-workers have left. And now he’s dressed in a baby bonnet, a bib and a diaper with his thumb in his mouth yelling, “Mama! Mama!”

Thankfully, there’s no need to call in mental health professionals. He’s just practicing for one of the zaniest things he’s ever done: attempt to fly a custom-built flying machine over the Delaware River near Camden, N.J., in front of tens of thousands of spectators.

It’s all in the name of fun as the Red Bull Flugtag, which means “flight day” in German, brings it’s adventurous competition to Philadelphia for the first time.

The Red Bull Flugtag was started in 1991 in Vienna by Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian. It has since been held more than 80 times in more than 35 cities.

Two weeks ago, the Flugtag in Long Beach, Calif., attracted a crowd of 105,000. This weekend’s event will be a bit like a carnival, with food and beverage vendors dotting the shore.

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At each event, several teams launch their homemade creation off a ramp 30 feet above the water. The goal is to fly or glide as far as possible to impress the judges, who rank teams on distance, the craftsmanship of their rig and the showmanship of the team.

Barton’s team, called the Stork Dorks, shouldn’t have any problems with the showmanship part. They have planned an opening dance to the song “That’s the Way (I Like It)” by KC and the Sunshine Band before Metallica’s “Whiplash” takes over as the four other guys on Barton’s team push him atop the homemade stork for 100 feet before he sails off the edge of the ramp over (and eventually into) the river.

“It will be a thrill. My heart rate will be up,” says Barton, 39, who heads the only team from Delaware participating in the event. “When I’m on the flight deck and they start pushing me, I’ll probably yelling, ‘Get me down!’”

Barton’s teammates, a goofy group of mostly middle-aged men who know each other either through being friends, co-workers or family members, will wear multi-colored propeller beanie hats and yellow tights with cardboard wings around their arms covered with real feathers attached. The team — Barton, Earl Carter, Bud Stille, Jim Cobb and Rick Ramsey — includes ironworkers and even a registered nurse working at Wilmington Hospital.

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They all worked together to build the stork, which has a wingspan just under 30 feet and is roughly 24 feet from its bill to its rear. Made out of about 300 feet of welded-together electrical metallic tubing, the aircraft weighs about 160 pounds. The team, sponsored by G-Force Hobbies in Stanton’s First State Plaza, estimates it cost about $700 in material to make the pseudo-aircraft, most of which was paid by their sponsor.

Work began on the stork in early July and just wrapped up Thursday, since the team must transport their contraption to Philadelphia today so it’s in place for Saturday’s event.

Stork Dorks is just one of 34 groups competing, joining teams from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., New York, Massachusetts, Ohio and Rhode Island who made the cut, beating out more than 400 teams who initially applied.

So why a stork? And perhaps even more pressing – why the saggy diaper?

Well, the team’s theme is inspired by the 1959 “Looney Tunes” short called “Apes of Wrath,” during which an extremely drunken stork mistakenly delivers Bugs Bunny as a newborn to a family of apes. Bugs Bunny is dressed in a baby bonnet and diaper, just like Barton will be.

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Rick Ramsey’s wife, Kim, was in charge of the costumes and is not the least surprised that this group ended up in the center of something that’s, well, quite ridiculous. “They head up a whole train of crazy,” she jokes.

Some of the Stork Dorks say they felt like a kid again when they first got together to begin work on the project, which took them away from other more grown-up obligations like their families, girlfriends and jobs.

“It all boils down to friendship,” Stille says of the reason why he decided to take the plunge. “Friendship and memories. These are the best people I ever met in my life. I’d do anything for them.”

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The team, which spent about 300 man-hours on the project, expects more than 100 friends and family to travel north to watch the spectacle. They have been spreading the word through their Facebook page — search “Stork Dorks” to find it. And team supporters can text the Stork Dorks team number, “Team12,” to RBULL (72855) between 11 a.m. today and 3:30 p.m. Saturday for the People’s Choice Craft award. (You can only vote up to 15 times.)

For some teams, the whole event is an entertaining goof and most machines don’t fly much at all, dropping almost immediately into the water. (The farthest a machine has flown is 207 feet at last year’s event in St. Paul, Minn.) But for the Stork Dorks, the aim is on mixing wacky with winning.

“I’m confident we’re going to win this,” Barton says standing in the middle of his employer’s warehouse at PanelMatic Inc., eyeing his long-necked creation. “We want to look ridiculous, but also try and win at the same time.”